Shoreline
by vanillapancakes
Summary: It was supposed to be a Moonlight Dinner - and just that. If Mila Collins had known that this trip to Mako Island would change her whole life, she would have bailed faster than someone could say oyster salad. Unfortunately, now she's stuck with a tail, two girls who desperately (don't) want to be her friend and all the other things life as a part-time mermaid has to offer.
1. Just a Moonlight Dinner

_Hey everyone! :-)_

_I'm vanillapancakes and this is my first H2O fanfiction. English is not my mother language but I did live in an_

_English speaking country for a year so if you could give this fanfiction a chance, that'd be really cool :D :-)_

_If there are any grammar mistakes or anything else, please let me know. :-)_

_And now, enjoy the first chapter! :-)_

_Disclaimer: I don't own the idea or anything related to H2O - Just add water, I only own my own characters. :-)_

* * *

"Mila, are you coming? If we wait any longer, we don't have to go at all!"

"Give me one more minute!" I screamed loudly, hoping that my boyfriend who was waiting outside for me could hear me.

A big sigh left my mouth and I dropped my head onto the wooden kitchen table.

I just wanted to finish this stupid crossword puzzle. There were only 4 words left missing and I needed one of them to complete the solution word. But how on earth was I supposed to know the answer to 'What great lake borders New York'? I've been living at the Gold Coast of Australia my entire life, ergo 16 years! I didn't know a thing about the USA or the waters over there.

Suddenly I heard a loud moan and about five seconds later, my boyfriend entered the kitchen. "Man, Mila, what is taking you so long?" He paused. Then he saw me half lying on the table, exhaled, slowly, kind of desperately, and said, "What are you doing? Please tell me that you at least finished packing our basket with the food."

I lifted my head up and carefully formed my best apology-smile. "I … tried?"

"MILA!"

"I really did try, Aaron!" I exclaimed, "But this dumb crossword puzzle needed my whole attention!"

Next thing I knew, he snatched the magazine with the crossword puzzle away from me and shoved it in the basket together with the five different lunchboxes in which we've already put the dinner we prepared for tonight.

"Hey!" I shouted.

Aaron grinned, "Oh, stop whining. We'll take it with us and can solve it together if you want to. But now we should really go, otherwise it's gonna be too late for dinner and I wouldn't want to miss the chance of overeating with you."

He took the basket in his one hand and grabbed my hand with his other one and pulled me outside of the house into my garden all the way down to the docks where his little blue motorboat was waiting for us.

"After you," he said and helped me climb into the boat. Then he followed and started the motor. "Ready for our date night?"

It's been forever since Aaron and I did something together. Just us, without his friends. Unfortunately, Aaron was always super busy with his billions of extracurricular activities. He helped out in the school library, tutored some middle schoolers in physics and chemistry and was either competing in the school's swim team or playing a volleyball game. So it was mostly him, his teammates aka squad plus me or just me by myself. It was not that I didn't have any other companions. Rather than thinking of them as friends, I'd call them acquaintances. People that you've known since forever, that you could laugh with and spend time with, but you simply weren't able form a proper bond with them, like sharing secrets and stuff. I just never found the right person who could handle me on a constant basis. Except for Aaron. But it never bothered me too much. Besides, there was still the possibility to hang out with my family, Aaron and his friends. Or my good old crossword puzzles.

As we left the harbor and drove our motorboat away from the coast onto the sea, I couldn't stop myself from observing the whole scenery. We were in the middle of the ocean, driving faster and faster even though we couldn't really see a lot. It was nighttime, there was dark blue water all around us and our boat left tiny little waves wherever we went. I looked up to the sky and appreciated the starlight shining onto us for a few moments when all of sudden I spotted something close to the horizon.

I gasped, "It's a full moon tonight?" which led to Aaron laughing loudly. "Duh, it's called a Moonlight Dinner, you brain."

"But," I started whispering, "what about the werewolves?"

"Mila," Aaron sighed, "we've been over this a million times. There is no such thing as werewolves."

"Of course there is! And I'm one hundred percent sure that there are werewolves where we're heading to, on Mako Island. So maybe we shouldn't go there tonight. Let's eat somewhere else. Or let's cancel the date completely and do it tomorrow. We can still eat the spaghetti and meatballs tomorrow, I promise."

Without any further discussion, Aaron gave me a quick kiss on my lips and kept on driving the motorboat to Mako Island.

It was clear that he was trying to calm me down, to stop me from arguing but I didn't want to relax. I wanted him to turn around and go back to my house. We've never even told our parents where we wanted to have our Moonlight Dinner because they would forbid us to even set foot on Mako Island. All these legends, myths and secrets surrounding the little volcano island swimming in the wide Pacific Ocean were reason enough for our parents to prohibit specifically to ever visit it. Not that it would stop Aaron from going there regularly with his friends. If his or my parents ever found out about that, we would be grounded for the rest of our lives.

"Please turn around, Aaron. I don't want to go to Mako anymore. I'm scared. What if the werewolves want to eat us? Nobody would ever know the truth about how we died," I said hesitantly.

"We're not gonna die tonight, Mila. Everything will be alright, I promise you, there are no werewolves, vampires, fairies, witches or any other supernatural creatures on Mako," he reassured me but it didn't quite work the way he wanted because I answered defiantly, "How can you be so sure about that? You know what? Stop the boat, Aaron, I'm going to swim home."

"Please don't be silly, Mila. We're almost there."

"Stop the fricking boat! Now!"

Finally Aaron slowed down and raised one eyebrow. "You're serious on this? Do you have any idea how deep the ocean is? How come you're not afraid of sharks? Or mermaids who want to lure you to your death?"

"Because," I started my explanation, "first of all, I'm not a sailor. You are, at least kind of. And secondly, you're talking about sirens. There's a huge difference between sirens and mermaids. Sirens are mean. Mermaids aren't, they just swim happily in the ocean, singing songs to dolphins all day long."

"… You seriously shouldn't read all these fantasy novels anymore. But okay, if you really believe in the supernatural, I'll trust you on this. But then you need to trust me when I tell you that we will have a great dinner on Mako Island and _if _there are any weird creatures, I'll protect you, okay? Do we have a deal?" Aaron looked deeply into my blue eyes.

I exhaled and closed my eyes. Then I accepted, "Okay, fine. Deal."

After hearing my agreement, Aaron smiled and gave me another little kiss, this time on my cheek, and started the boat again to drive the last mile that still separated us from our destination: Mako Island.

* * *

The moment we had almost reached the beach, Aaron climbed out of the boat and pulled it the last few feet until it was stuck in the sand. Then he helped me get out as well and grabbed our food while I took the blue knitted blanket that my mom made for my birthday when I was 7 years old.

"By the way, the answer is Erie," Aaron said and started walking closer to the trees and away from the beach.

"What?" I asked, unable to follow where he was coming from with that question.

"Lake Erie. Your crossword puzzle. Technically it could also be Lake Ontario but you only need four letters, so Erie," he explained.

"Oh. Thanks, I guess?"

I was still too confused about his random change of topic to answer properly. He could have told me a lot earlier.

"You're welcome," he grinned. "The solution word should be OYSTER, given that you only needed the E to complete it."

Look at the irony, we have actually packed oyster salad in one of our lunchboxes for our Moonlight Dinner. Speaking of, where the heck was Aaron going?

I constantly had to try to follow him while also ceasing to get punched in the face by tree branches, leaves or spider webs. Even though I was pretty sure that spider webs were bad at punching. They were just annoying to walk through.

"Aaron, can you like, stop for a minute?" I finally shouted, breathing heavily.

He turned around. "Why?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because we're in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE?! Circled by huge trees, bushes and angry animals aka werewolves?! I think we should go back to the beach, especially because it's called 'Moonlight Dinner'. With moonlight. It's dark here in the woods, there is, obviously, no moonlight coming through," I clarified, and I couldn't stop myself from sounding a tad mad.

Aaron seemed to notice the anger in my voice and walked a few steps back into my direction. "Babe. Relax, will ya? I know just the spot where we will have the perfect view over Mako and the ocean. I've been here before, remember? With my teammates, Noah and Tommy. You know Noah and Tommy, right?"

I sighed, "Yep, I do."

"Awesome. Then let's get going, we're almost there, I promise."

So I sighed again and followed my stupid boyfriend all the way through a billion bushes, more spider webs and at some point I lost count on how many times I almost slipped and fell because of the muddy ground. And I _was _already carrying a flashlight which has saved me a lot. I didn't even want to know how bruised I would be without it.

"Please kill me," I muttered under my breath but Aaron heard it anyway. He began to laugh, "Great idea, that would mean more food for me."

As I rolled my eyes, we finally left the woods and were standing in the middle of a stony clearing. I heard water splashing but I couldn't see where it was coming from so I simply asked, "Are we there yet?"

"Almost. But you've got to be careful here, these stones are quite slippery and –" Aaron couldn't even finish his sentence because I tripped and all of a sudden I fell into a deep, deep, deep dark hole. A loud scream left my mouth and I tried everything to at least protect my head from bumping into the walls.

"Ow! What the heck?!" I said angrily and rubbed my head. Then I realized what just happened and mumbled, "Shirt!"

"Mila, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Aaron shouted down the hole and I answered, "Why didn't you warn me earlier, Aaron? Geez, how come you've never seen this hole before? But no, I'm not hurt, I guess."

Anyway, there was still no chance that I could climb up again. It was way too sandy and bold. I was stuck here. In some weird cave. At night, on Mako Island. Great, just great.

Oh my god, what if this was the secret cave of the Mako Island werewolves?! And I've entered it without permission. That was it, I'm going to die tonight.

"Aaron, you need to come down, please. I really don't like it here and I'm not capable of climbing up to you," I explained and had to stop myself from starting to cry.

Today was not the day that I was planning on dying.

"There is no advantage in us both being stuck down there. Don't worry, I'll go get a rope or something," Aaron promised.

"What?! What rope, Aaron?! We're in the middle of a deserted island! Don't you dare leave me here alone!" I desperately tried convincing him to stay which led to a tear running down my cheek.

Was he really considering running away?! I wish we had never agreed to this Moonlight Dinner!

The last words that I heard him say were: "Just … try to find a different exit or a way to climb up! Stay calm, I'll be back as soon as I can with help!"

"Aaron! Seriously, don't leave me!" I screamed but he was already gone.

Just when I came up with an idea! I could have thrown my blue blanket up the hole and he could have grabbed it and pulled me out. Damn it!

Okay … I had to calm down. That's why I did everything to convince myself that there were no werewolves on Mako, just like Aaron said. I needed to get out of this cave, no matter what. So I got up, removed the sand from my clothes, realized I had a bloody elbow, decided that I could take care of it later on and had a first proper look around the cave.

It really didn't seem to have a natural origin, I even spotted stairs at one side.

Look for another exit, that's what Aaron said. Maybe these stairs would guide me to a different exit but what if they would lead me directly to the werewolf pack?

Unfortunately, I didn't have a second option, I really didn't want to just wait for Aaron, so I carefully made my way to the first step.

Slowly, I followed the stairs all around a little corner but what I saw next left me completely breathless. The cave led to an even bigger cave that had a little opening at the top. It had the appearance of the inside of a volcano. Mako's volcano. But what shocked me the most was this beautiful, mesmerizing, turquoise pool of water. All I could do was stare at it in awe. The water looked so peaceful, so welcoming and before I knew it, I threw my blanket away and stepped closer to the pool.

Something about it was just so … so compelling.

At first it was only my fingertips that touched the water, then all my fingers and in the end my whole hand played with it. I laughed while making tiny waves and it was a feeling of complete happiness. It felt like a trance when I took my shoes and socks of and put my legs in the warm water.

Then, something happened. It suddenly got very bright in the cave and I looked up. The fullmoon had moved over the volcano opening and its light filled the whole room. When the moon covered the opening completely, that's the moment I got to witness something inexplicable, yes, almost magical. The water started boiling and hundreds of bubbles of light started to float up in the air.

For a few seconds I was too startled to react but then I woke up out of my trance and quickly pulled my feet out of the pool. Confusion was written all over my face and I just stared at the water in disbelief as the moon moved away from the opening.

I breathed heavily; it took me a while to process the things I just observed.

Little did I know that I wasn't the only one who had just seen everything I've seen.

And if I had known that there were two girls hiding in between the pool and the cave's underwater exit, watching me in utter shock, I would have run for the hills without giving any other thoughts about Aaron, our Moonlight Dinner or the Mako werewolves. And well, that was saying something.


	2. Like a freak with a tail

_Hi everyone! :-)_

_Thank you so much for reading the first chapter and for 5 follows and 5 favs! That's amazing and I'm so glad that you're enjoying Mila's adventure so far! :-)_

_I hope you'll like the second chapter as much as the first one and I'm excited to hear what you think! :-)_

_Have fun! :-)_

* * *

A few moments later there was muffled scream and at first I didn't even realize it was Aaron calling me from outside the first cave where I fell. He shouted, once, twice, and before he could do it again, I glanced back at the now peaceful pool of water one last time and carefully made my way back down the stairs.

Whatever happened in that bigger cave, I couldn't tell anybody about it. All they would do was think that I was weird – even weirder than before. Especially Aaron. Every single day he would tell me how crazy I was and imagine me trying to explain what I saw. Imagine me going on and on about a pool in the middle of a volcano and magical bubbles of light which flew up to the moon. Although it shouldn't really surprise him, I mean on our way here I was convinced that there were werewolves living on Mako Island (which I still believe), so he should be used to me talking about this kind of stuff. Anyway, I wasn't planning on finding out how he would react, so I decided to remain silent.

"Mila? Are you still here?" Aaron asked and his voice started to sound a little panicked.

I finished climbing up the stairs and suddenly he appeared in front of me. A big breath left his mouth and he immediately pulled me into his arms. "Thank goodness, I thought I had lost you!"

"Which wouldn't have happened if you wouldn't have left me alone in the first place," I answered angrily before I reminded myself that in the end nothing dangerous had happened and that he was only trying to find a solution to get me out of the cave.

He grinned a little and put his hands on my shoulders. "I'm glad that you can still act annoyed. Can't be that bad then."

"I'm fine, yes. But honestly, I can't wait to get home. Screw our dinner, I'm so sorry, but I think I've lost my appetite."

We slowly walked to the hole and I looked up. Somehow Aaron had managed to get a rope and had attached it outside so that we would be able to climb up and leave this scary cave once and for all.

Aaron smiled. "I can't blame you. It must have been extremely scary down here all by yourself. I'm very proud of you for surviving on your own. By the way, what exactly did you do in the last hour while waiting for me to come back?"

My eyes widened in disbelief. "What?! You've been gone for an hour?!" Did I seriously stare at a pool of water for almost 60 minutes?!

"Well, duh. It took me a long time to get back to the boat, find the spare rope and run all the way back here. How come you didn't notice the amount of time that you've been in this cave?" Aaron's eyes narrowed in confusion before he started to check my head for a concussion or something.

"I – I um … I was just -," I started to explain but I couldn't go on further because there was no chance in hell that he wouldn't detect my lie. So I simply kept quiet, hoping that he would let it go and not try to walk up the steps behind me and discover the moon pool.

Apparently Aaron wasn't too thrilled by my incomplete answer. He grabbed my hand and almost pushed me to the exit. He had obviously activated his 'Aaron-Shafer-Overprotective-Worry-Mode' because he said, "Let's get you out of here and into your bed. First thing tomorrow morning we'll go to the doctor to see if you've accidently hurt yourself more than we think."

"I'm fine, really!" I exclaimed but even I didn't believe myself. Whatever happened in that moon pool was everything but normal. Maybe I did hit my head too hard and got unconscious without remembering. Maybe it was all just my imagination and no magic at all. Maybe I had simply lost it.

Aaron raised one eyebrow. "Okay, if you say so. Then let's get going."

I nodded in agreement and we both climbed up the hole. First I grabbed the rope and Aaron followed, taking care that I wouldn't fall again. After that we walked all the way back to the beach, through the billion bushes and spider webs but I couldn't care less anymore. Aaron carried the food and his rope whereas I had wrapped my blue knitted blanket around me, trying not to trip or hurt myself or Aaron in any way. We threw everything in the boat and before I realized we were in the middle of the ocean again, quickly getting closer and closer to the mainland. When we arrived at the docks behind my garden, we grabbed the food and left the rest in the boat. The sudden fatigue was too hard to handle so we simply took our clothes off and fell into my bed.

I sighed. That … was a total disaster. I bet Aaron was even more disappointed than me. He put so much effort in the dinner and hadn't talked about anything else for the last two weeks. And then my stupid, clumsy self happened and destroyed all his hopes.

I snuggled up to Aaron and he wrapped his arms around me. Before he could fall asleep, I hesitantly whispered, "Are you mad at me?"

"Me? Mad at you? Why would I be?"

"Because I fell into the hole and ruined our Moonlight Dinner. And now we're both so tired that we can't even talk properly and spend quality time together."

"Man, Mila," he smiled, "stop constantly blaming yourself for everything. Even though the evening didn't work out the way we wanted, I still enjoyed every second of it. Except for when you fell, of course. I really missed you and I feel like we don't see each other a lot anymore. Maybe I should step back from tutoring and swimming for a while."

"No!" I almost shouted. "Don't do that! I know how much you love it, that wouldn't be fair on you! We'll find a way."

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" he grinned.

I grinned back, "Maybe once or twice."

"Then let me make you a promise. I will always love you, no matter what. Even if you suddenly turn into a werewolf." Aaron locked his eyes with mine.

His suddenly serious face made me laugh out loud, "I'll remember that," which led to Aaron joining in and asking, "Well, aren't you gonna promise me the same?"

"I'll think about it," I answered and couldn't cease my grin from getting even wider.

These were the moments that I loved so much about our relationship. We were able to joke around but at the same time I knew that I could always count on Aaron to stand by me and I would do the exact same for him.

As if he had read my mind, he started grinning too, "Then let me help you think."

"Someone, SOS!" I giggled and Aaron kissed me passionately before pulling me even closer to him.

* * *

The next morning I woke up way earlier than I wished to, just because last night when Aaron and I came back from Mako we must have forgotten to draw the curtains close. Consequently, the awesome sun shone mercilessly into my bedroom, stopping us from getting a good night sleep.

I carefully lifted my head and had a look around my room.

"Morning, Gollum!" Aaron greeted me cheerfully and all I did was letting out a muffled groan and immediately falling back into my bed.

How were we even a couple?! He definitely was the most annoying person on the entire planet!

"Yes, I did sleep very well, thank you so much for asking, Mila, that is so kind of you," Aaron started teasing me and only one second later I grabbed my pillow and threw it into his face.

He laughed loudly. "Ow, what did I do to deserve this harsh sign of affection?"

Because I knew that I wouldn't be able to fall back asleep again, I decided to get out of bed and at least brush my teeth. They felt so disgusting because last night after coming home we were so knackered that we skipped tooth brushing and went to bed without it. Worst decision of my life. I couldn't even remember when we fell asleep in the end. It must have been something between 2 am and 5 am and now it was what? 9 o'clock in the morning? Thankfully it was a Sunday, so we didn't need to go to school and were able to relax a bit longer.

"Is it possible to love and hate a person at the same time?" I asked after I went into my en suite bathroom and had a look into the mirror. I felt dizzy and Gollum really could have been my cousin at that moment. My hair was messier than ever, I was covered in dirt and dust, my face had a few scratches and I was too scared to check for my bloody elbow.

"Love you too, Babe!" Aaron exclaimed and I could almost see how pleased he was with himself, even through the closed door.

A big sigh left my mouth. It would be better to take a shower before my parents could see me like this. But all I wanted to do first was to clean my teeth and get this nasty taste out of my mouth. So I took my toothbrush and the toothpaste off my shelf and rinsed the brush with water before applying the toothpaste and starting to brush my teeth. A few water droplets ran down my chin and fell into the sink. I watched them as they made their way to the plughole. As soon as the first one disappeared, I suddenly felt a tickly feeling throughout my whole body which began out of nowhere in my toes and then crawled upwards like hundreds of ants. Next thing I knew I lost my balance and fell onto the bathroom floor with a loud crash.

"Mila?" Aaron asked irritatedly.

What the hell happened now?! Something definitely wasn't right.

I slowly turned my head around, only to immediately turn it back to the front. Then I dared to have another look to make sure that I wasn't losing my mind – again.

But nope. Not just my imagination. There was big, bronze-coloured, scaly tail where my legs were supposed to be.

"Holy shirt!" I screamed and pressed my hands onto my mouth.

A knock, then another knock. "Mila! Are you alright? Do you need help? I'm coming in now!" Aaron's voice showed how stressed he was. But he shouldn't be the one panicking, I was allowed to panic, I had grown a freaking tail!

"Stop!" I shouted, "Don't you dare come in, Aaron!"

"Why not? You sounded like you need help! What happened?"

"I don't know!"

"What do you mean, you don't know?! Did you get unconscious? I'm gonna call an ambulance, just stay calm!"

I heard him dial a number on his phone and panicked even more. "Aaron, I'm serious! I'll break up with you if you really call an ambulance! I don't need anybody! Just … go! Leave me alone!"

"I'm not gonna leave you! I promised I'd stay with you!" He began pushing down the door handle.

"AARON! If you open that door, I'll kick you out of my life! You have to respect my boundaries!" My eyes had widened in shock, tears ran down my face and I was pretty sure that I was already hyperventilating. I couldn't risk him seeing me like this! Like a freak with a tail! Like a god damn fish!

"But not if you're hurt!"

"I'm not hurt! You're the only one hurting me right now! Please, just go, okay? I'll call you later, I promise."

Aaron scoffed, I knew that he was hesitating but finally I heard steps moving away from the bathroom door and then the front door opened and closed.

He left. He actually left. At last. I didn't realize that I had held my breath while he walked away so I exhaled and inhaled again slowly while keeping on crying silently.

That was too much for me to handle. I didn't want to argue with Aaron however I didn't want him to see that his girlfriend apparently was a fish either. That was why I freaked out completely, kicking him out of my home.

I didn't move for a few seconds and thought about the most intelligent thing to do next which obviously was to find out what the heck was going on with me. I let my hands move over the scales from my tail and realized that my bra had changed too, into something that kind of had the appearance of a scaly bikini top in the same bronze colour as the tail.

I mumbled to myself, "I have scales. And a tail. Which is usually something that normal humans shouldn't have. So what if I'm not normal anymore? What if I'm … supernatural?"

My hand almost gave my face a facepalm on its own. There probably was a logical explanation for this. Just like there would be a completely logical explanation for the magic bubbles in the moon pool on Mako yesterday and … oh my god! Mako!

It suddenly seemed so obvious! Whatever happened in that cave on Mako must have turned me into a fish! And now the only question left was: How was I supposed to turn back into a human?!

* * *

/ / / / /

At the same time, in that little cave that was filled with magic light just a few hours before, there were two girls in scaly bronze-coloured tails lying in the turquoise pool of water. One of them was rather tall with blonde pixie cut hair, the other one was shorter and wore her long, black hair in a high ponytail. She fixated the blonde one with her brown eyes and nervously said, "This is bad, Eleanor. Really, really bad."

The blonde girl on the other hand seemed to be more relaxed. "It's not that bad."

"Of course it is!"

"It really isn't, Lucy."

"Are you kidding me?! We don't even know who that girl is and now she's sharing our secret! She didn't seem like someone who's very good at keeping secrets! She will be exposed and then all of us will be treated like lab rats!" exclaimed the black-haired girl, Lucy, and swam to the edge of the pool.

"Lucy. You're overreacting again," tried Eleanor her best to calm her down.

"I'm not!"

Suddenly Eleanor started grinning. "You definitely are. But don't you worry, child, I'm here to save the day. I know who she is."

Lucy turned around to her friend. "Well, then spit it out!"

Eleanor's grin widened. "Beg for it."

"Eleanor! This is serious!" Lucy almost screamed. She had a low resilience and didn't know what to do with the new situation. Not at all.

Her hands raised in defense, Eleanor kept on grinning. "Okay, okay, no need to shout, girl. Her name's Mia, Maya, Maria or something, she's the girlfriend of my brother's best friend Aaron and I have Biology and PE with her."

After hearing that, Lucy's head tilted in confusion. "PE? But you and I have PE together. So she and I have PE together too. How come I've never noticed her?"

Eleanor just shrugged, "I guess because she's mostly very quiet. Doesn't talk a lot and keeps to herself. She's kind of weird, in an adorable way," which led to Lucy shaking her head. "She is so not adorable."

"You're just saying that because you're overwhelmed by the fact that there's going to be a new mermaid and we need to befriend her," Eleanor answered.

"We need to WHAT?!"

"Think about it. The easiest way to keep her from telling everybody is to make sure that she already has someone to talk to, aka us. Plus, the closer we are to her, the better we can prevent any water-involving accidents," the blonde girl explained, and she could see how even the last piece of happiness was about to leave Lucy's face. "I don't like it. This makes everything so much more complicated."

Eleanor put her hand on Lucy's arm to comfort her bit before she said, "I'm right and you know it."

A little sigh left Lucy's mouth. "Yep, unfortunately you are. But what if she doesn't want to be friends with us? I mean, it would be so sudden, she'll realize that we only approach her because we have to."

"Then we need to use our best acting skills. And who knows, maybe she's actually really nice. After all she's Aaron's girlfriend and to be honest, he could date any girl he wants, so if he chose her that must mean at least something," Eleanor thought out loud, started grinning again and Lucy watched her in disbelief. "Man, how are you so chill about this?"

After that, Eleanor had to laugh, "Because she has no choice. Sooner or later she has to accept and talk to us, if she wants to or not. She'll quickly see that in the end we are the only ones who can and will help her."

"You sometimes can be very manipulative, you know that?" Lucy asked but had to grin too.

"I know, and I love it. Now come on, let's get going and see if we can get her address from my brother. Unless she's an extremely dirty person, she must have already touched water somehow and changed into her new mermaid-form," the blonde one suggested, waited for Lucy's agreement and then both of them dove under swimming out of the magic cave and away from the little volcano island that once again turned someone's whole life upside down.


	3. I am not a mermaid

_Hello, my dear readers! ^-^_

_Hope you've had an amazing week so far. :-)_

_Thank you for every new reader, follower and fav! And thanks so much for the reviews! I'm so glad that you like the story! :*_

_Unfortunately, I'm not planning yet to introduce the original cast, so far it will only be my OCs. :)_

Enjoy the new chapter and please let me know what you think! :-) xx

\- Vanillapancakes :*

* * *

Eleanor entered the kitchen of her home faster than necessary while Lucy tried her best to keep up with Eleanor's pace. Even though Eleanor would never admit it, she was feeling a tad anxious about their plan aka not really a plan. The only thing that the two mermaids had decided on was that they'd try to get as much information out of Eleanor's brother as possible without revealing anything. And once they had everything they needed, they would go to Mila and just … confront her? What else were they supposed to do when they stood in front of her in her house? Lucy had suggested to get to know her from far away first, but Eleanor preferred the blunt way. The more time they would let pass, the more options Mila would have to do something extremely stupid and they had to prevent that at all costs. So simply confronting her seemed to be the best idea.

At the same time, a tall but lanky boy with hair as blond as Eleanor's sat down at the modern glass kitchen table. He had a bowl of cereal in front of him and looked as if he had just woken up from a six-year nap.

Eleanor took a deep breath. It was now or never. So she put a smile on her face and walked towards her brother. Acting. She had to act brilliantly or he'd notice straightaway.

"Hey, Tommy! Hope you're having a wonderful Sunday morning!" Eleanor grinned and ruffled through his blond locks.

The boy rolled his eyes. "What do you want, Eleanor?"

Eleanor's grin widened immediately, "Can't I just be happy to see my amazing big bro?" which led to Tommy scoffing, "You're never happy to see me."

"Wha- That is so not true! We love each other, you know that!" Eleanor exclaimed in a shocking manner and acted as if her heart was in tremendous pain, without ever stopping to grin.

Unfortunately, Tommy started to get a little annoyed. He put his spoon on the table and looked straight into Eleanor's eyes. "What do you _want, _Eleanor?"

As the conversation went along, Eleanor got more confident. Acting in front of her brother was a lot easier than she thought. She kind of had always done it, not in a situation as serious as this one, but for fun. And that practice was paying well right now. The blonde mermaid knew exactly what to do next. Tommy was the reason she learned how to use manipulation to get whatever she desired. Her brother wasn't very strong-minded and sometimes he was also a bit too naïve to see through her plans. So in the past two years, she had practiced some skills she found on the internet and adapted them to him.

"For you to tell Lucy that you love me?" Eleanor smiled innocently.

Tommy turned his head around to realize that Lucy had been standing behind Eleanor the whole time. She gave him a shy wave, he quickly nodded to her before his full attention zapped straight back to his sister. He loudly asked, "No, what do you _really _want?"

It took Eleanor about 0.2 seconds to understand that her chance was now. She probably only had this one shot so she couldn't fail. Consequently, she decided to start with Step 1: Guilt.

Eleanor abruptly began yelling, "Why is it so hard for you to understand that all I ever wanted in life was your affection?!"

"Because you don't care about my affection! You're just an annoying 17-year-old trying to get what she wants!"

Satisfaction grew inside of Eleanor and she had to smile for a split second about how everything was working out even better than expected, so she chose to begin with Step 2: Deliberate provocation.

"Oh, because you're so much older?" Eleanor wanted to know and the sarcasm in her voice was almost visible.

"I'm 19!" Tommy exclaimed.

Everything was surprisingly going according to plan, Eleanor thought. Now the only thing left to do was getting the information that she needed. She simply had to provoke Tommy even more and subtly guide his answers into the right direction, very carefully.

"Wow, shocker! That's nothing special, all your other friends are too! Noah, Aaron, Aaron's girlfriend, …"

Tommy contradicted, "Nope! Aaron's actually younger than Noah and me, he's 18! And his girlfriend Mila is even younger, she's 16!"

Lucy grinned as she saw the pleased look on Eleanor's face. That was strike one. Her friend was way too good at this.

Eleanor continued, "Then why would an 18-year-old want to hang out with you, huh? Where is Aaron now? Can I ask him? I'm gonna ask him!"

"You can't! He's with Mila and you don't know where she lives!"

"Oh, and you do?"

"Of course I do! Her house is right next to the old Eucalyptus Garden!"

And there was strike two.

Without hesitation, Eleanor grabbed her brother's spoon, sneaked a bit of his cereal, ruffled through his blond locks again and cheerfully said, "Thank you very much, Tommy, that's everything I need to know. Love ya, bye!"

The two girls laughed loudly and almost ran out of the kitchen and left through the back door.

Tommy couldn't cease himself from staring at them in disbelief. "What the hell was that about?" he muttered to himself before he groaned, "Urgh! It's way too early for this. Stupid full moon." He didn't get much sleep last night.

After that, he grabbed his phone and quickly sent a text message to Aaron to warn him saying, "My psycho sister and her bestie are on their way to you and Mila."

A minute later, Tommy's phone vibrated, and he read Aaron's answer: "Mila kicked me out this morning."

The blond boy almost let his phone slip into his cereal bowl. "Shit!" he whispered and dialed Aaron's number.

* * *

"I cannot believe how simple it was for you to play your brother," Lucy grinned as they walked through the neighbourhood. The old Eucalyptus Garden was quite close to where Eleanor lived. It would take them about 5 more minutes to get there, all in all they'd only need 15 minutes of walking to arrive. If Lucy wasn't mistaken, Mila was part of the Collins family which was well known to Lucy's mum. Her and Mila's mum used to be in the same choir when Lucy was in still in Elementary School. She remembered visiting the Collins and maybe even playing with a girl in the old Eucalyptus Garden as kids. She wasn't one hundred percent sure, but the girl could have easily been Mila, given that they were the same age. But she hasn't been there in over 9 years, so her memories were more blurred than clear.

Eleanor grinned too, "I know, right? He is and will always be the perfect victim for me to train my skills. Although I sometimes hope he's just playing along. Otherwise we really need to start worrying about his mental state."

"He'll be alright," Lucy laughed and pulled Eleanor around the next corner.

"Guuurl, don't tell me you still have a crush on him?!" Eleanor asked and wiggled her eyebrows.

"I never did," Lucy answered innocently, and Eleanor opened her mouth ready to discuss the topic but closed it again. "Just keep on crushing, Luce. Maybe he'll notice you some day."

Lucy sighed and smiled. "Don't worry about me. I couldn't be with him anyway because I'd either have to tell him about us being mermaids or he'd find out on his own and sue me or something."

"Just because he wants to become a lawyer, doesn't mean he's going to sue you for being a mermaid. We've kept the secret for almost one and half years now. It would genuinely surprise me if that dummy ever found out," Eleanor laughed and squeezed Lucy's hand sympathetically.

Lucy sighed again. "Maybe you're right. But it's still too dangerous. And to be honest, it doesn't really matter, I mean, he almost didn't even notice me this morning so the chances of him ever falling in love with me are close to zero."

The two girls had almost reached the little house of the Collins.

The blond mermaid smiled encouragingly. "Hey, cheer up! Wonders do happen, otherwise we wouldn't have tails. And now, let's focus on meeting Maria."

"Mila."

"That's what I said. Do you want to do the talking? You've met her mum before, right?" Eleanor suggested and Lucy nodded in agreement. "Yep. I just don't know if she'll remember me, but we'll see."

They found the house with the fitting door plate and in fear of hesitating and abandoning the mission, Eleanor immediately rang the doorbell. The girls waited patiently but even after a few minutes nobody answered. That's why Eleanor rang again. Suddenly they heard few noises coming from inside the house, some footsteps and then a brown-haired woman in her forties opened the door. She wore a yellow flower dress and eyed them suspiciously. "Yes, my loves?"

Lucy harrumphed and then smiled brightly. "Hi, Mrs. Collins! I don't know if you remember me, I'm Lucy Dawkins, Barb's daughter, and this is Eleanor. We're friends of Mila's. Is she home by any chance?"

After hearing that, Mila's mum's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh my, Lucy! Yes, yes, of course I remember you! Look at you! You have grown so much! And what a beautiful young lady you are!"

This led to Lucy blushing a bit. "Thank you, Mrs. Collins. That's very kind of you."

"I didn't realize you were friends with Mila. She has never talked about you. How's your mum doing by the way? We really miss her singing with us. Do you mind telling her she can always come back?" Mrs. Collins was so excited to see Lucy that she completely forgot about the actual reason the girls were visiting and Lucy had to giggle. "Yes, Mrs. Collins, I'll make sure to tell her. Even though I suppose she won't be able to return yet, you know, with the twins and stuff. Now that they are six years old, they've turned into big little rascals."

A loud laugh left Mrs. Collins' mouth. "Yes, I can imagine. But please tell her anyway, we really miss her."

"I will," Lucy agreed and smiled again.

For a few moments they just all stood there smiling at each other until Eleanor raised her voice. "What Lucy actually meant to say was that we've just recently started talking to Mia."

"Mila," Lucy quickly hissed.

"Mila, yes. You could say we're new friends. More like classmates. But we've hung out a few times at school and our PE teacher told us to do a project about the history of ballroom dancing together, so yeah. Is Mila home?"

Mrs. Collins raised an eyebrow. "So you're actually about to become friends with my daughter?"

"Kind of, yep."

"Well, lovely to meet you then! Come in, come in, Mila should be in her room. You're all very dedicated to do a school project on a Sunday. Do you want anything to eat or drink? Big minds need a lot of energy to think!" Mrs. Collins babbled and gave them a sign to come in and take off their shoes.

"I think we're okay for now, thank you very much," Lucy answered and grinned at Eleanor. That was, again, a lot easier than expected. Now only the hardest part of their plan was left: Meeting Mila, talking to her about mermaids and hoping she wouldn't label them as crazy and throw them out.

Mila's mum nodded. "Alright, darlings. Mila's room is up the stairs, the second door on the left. Just knock before you go in, I'll be in the living room if you need me. Have fun!"

The girls waited for Mrs. Collins to be out of sight, looked at each other one last time and started to climb up the stairs.

* * *

/ / / / /

I didn't even know how much time had passend since Aaron left. What if I had to stay a fish forever? How was I supposed to go to school tomorrow or even leave my bathroom? Maybe I needed a fish tank and someone to drive me around in that fish tank. Would I have to live underwater for the rest of my life? Fish couldn't breathe on land so why was I not dying?!

I groaned and cupped my chin in my hand. Perhaps I wasn't a fish. Or at least not full fish. The upper half of my body was, except for the scaly bra, still human-me. I had the same face, hair, neck, arms, boobs and belly. To be perfectly sure I was one hundred percent me after all, I counted each finger on my hand twice before noticing that I had toothpaste on them from when I cupped my chin in them. Right, I completely forgot to dry my face after toothbrushing because I fell and turned into a fish.

Somehow I managed to pull a towel off my bathroom shelf and sighed. With this tail I was so immobile. This is how I imagined pregnant women to feel when they couldn't get up because of their huge tummy. Although they still had feet, of course.

The minute I lifted the towel to dry my face, I heard a loud knock on my bedroom door.

Shoot!

"Not now, Mum! I'm busy!" I shouted and my body got filled with panic again.

I heard my bedroom door opening and then footsteps came closer. But it sounded like more than one pair of feet, there were too many footsteps for it to just be my mum. Maybe it was my mum and Aaron? Or the paramedics? Did he seriously call an ambulance?! He would be so dead if he did!

"Leave!" I shouted once more and rubbed the towel over my chin to remove the toothpaste stains. If I was about to be discovered with a tail, I at least wanted to not look like a dork.

Then, someone knocked on my bathroom door, the door handle went down and I hated myself for not locking it when I had still been able to.

I tried to move my tail in front of the door so that whoever tried to get in couldn't open it. Like a whale on beach. God, never have I ever felt so useless in my life.

Suddenly my whole body started tingling again and I witnessed with my own eyes how my tail shrank and formed itself back into my legs. All I did was gazing at my legs.

How …?

But then my bathroom door opened completely, and I quickly jumped up to face whoever entered my privacy without asking. Two girls stood in my bedroom, one of them had long black hair and the other girl was short-haired and blonde. I immediately knew that I had seen them before, just not where.

Their eyes were opened wide in shock. All they did was stare at me while I stared back at them. What the heck were they doing in my room?!

Then their gaze went down on me and I followed their look, only to realize that I was fully naked.

"Oh my god!" I screamed and quickly grabbed the towel from the ground. After changing back from fish to human, I wore the clothes that I had on me before transforming – none. Last night Aaron and I were so tired that we just threw our clothes on the ground and didn't put on any pyjamas.

"What are you doing here?!" I exclaimed and embarrassingly tried to cover myself with the towel.

The black-haired girl turned her head to the blond one before whispering, "Eleanor, why is she naked? Where are her clothes? Did they disappear? This is not how it's supposed to work!"

Damn, I finally remembered them! They were my classmates, Eleanor and Lucy!

Eleanor observed me completely, from top to bottom back to the top. After that, she raised one eyebrow. "You look horrible," she said.

"Wow, thanks," I answered sarcastically, although I knew she was probably right. Everything on me was still dirty, my hair was messy and my elbow bloody. "I was about to take a shower, hence the nudity."

Lucy grinned. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Well, good for you that you aren't then. Can you go now? As you might have noticed, I'm naked," I stated while getting really annoyed. Who bumps into the bathroom of a person that they've never really talked to and then refuses to leave?!

Consequently, Eleanor started laughing. "We couldn't care less about your skin, Maya. And, by the way, we have PE together. We've already seen you naked more than once."

"It's Mila," Lucy reminded her.

I felt my anger growing bigger. "That doesn't make it any better! I don't know you! How did you even get in here?! What the hell do you want from me?!"

"But we know each other, Mila! We've played together a lot when we were children," Lucy tried convincing me.

"That was nine years ago! And after that you didn't even look me in the eye when we met each other in school! I don't care about you!" I exclaimed and then continued, "And I also don't care that you're Tommy's brother, Eleanor! He's Aaron's best friend, not mine!'

"You're just confused." Eleanor leaned onto my bathroom wall.

"And why on earth would I be confused?" I asked angrily.

"Because you're a mermaid!" Lucy shouted and she was so excited that she almost hugged me.

My face dropped. Shirt. Shirt, shirt, shirt! Freaking shirt! Did they see me with that tail? How could they possibly know?! The door was closed the whole time! Were there any cameras in my bathroom?! And would did they mean by mermaid? I definitely wasn't a mermaid! Things like mermaids only existed in my fantasy novels!

"Get out," I said coldly.

"It's okay to be scared, Mila. We can help you." Lucy tried taking my hand.

"Don't touch me. Get. Out!" I yelled and slammed my bathroom door right into their faces.

The girls knocked onto it again. "Mila, please open up," Lucy said, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible.

Eleanor added, "You're only making things more complicated than they have to be."

"Shut up!" Tears ran down my face.

"Look, we know it's hard to believe at first. But do you have a different explanation?" Lucy asked, still trying to be the good cop.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh Mila, come on!" Eleanor groaned. "Don't play dumb. We know that you grow a fish tail as soon as you touch water."

"No, I don't," I denied.

"And we also know that you fell into the moon pool on Mako last night. So open up, please. There is no way you can hide from it." Now even Eleanor's voice sounded a bit friendlier.

"Did Aaron tell you?" was everything that I wanted to know.

Lucy gasped, "No, he didn't. Did you tell him? Please tell me you didn't show him your mermaid-form!"

I clenched the door handle before I objected, "I didn't tell him anything! I kicked him out, just like I should kick you out for entering my room without permission!"

A big sigh left Eleanor's mouth. "Relax, okay? We're not the bad ones here. We want to help you."

"Well, maybe I don't need help!"

"So you're saying you got it all under control?"

"Yes, I do!"

Eleanor laughed loudly, the sympathy in her voice was gone again. "That means you know exactly how to handle spilled drinks, showering, rain and everything else in life that involves water without dropping onto the ground with a tail like a fish on land, revealing yourself to everybody out there?"

"I AM NOT A MERMAID!" I yelled, louder than I had ever yelled before. My whole body was shaking from tension and fear and despair. It couldn't be true. Sure, I thought there were werewolves on Mako Island but there was a huge difference between big bad wolves and people who were half fish and lived underwater!

"Great, scream even louder," Eleanor said sarcastically, and I heard Lucy hitting her not once, but twice. After that, the black-haired girl said, "I'm sorry, Mila. We're all overwhelmed by the new situation. At first I didn't want to approach you because I thought you were weird. It was until I realized that we were good childhood friends once that I scolded myself for not giving you a chance. But we share a secret now, if you want to or not. So we should stick together. Okay?"

They didn't really want to be friends with me. They never, not once, talked to me in school. They ignored me and pretended I didn't even exist. And now, because I turned into a fish (which I assumed they could do too), they decided to be my friends. But they couldn't fool me that easily.

"We are not a team," I stated.

"Okay, then we're not a team. But let us at least explain some things to you," Lucy begged.

An explanation would be amazing, that much was true. Just not right now. That's why I locked my bathroom door.

"Mila …"

I moved away from the door and threw the towel onto the floor. "I'll take a shower now."

"Mila, you really shouldn't –"

"Let her do it, Luce," I heard Eleanor whisper and then continuing louder for me, "Take your time, Mila. We'll wait here in your room. Just call if you need anything."

It was clear that they weren't gonna go before I talked to them. All I could do was to accept that fact.

I stepped into my shower and hesitated for a moment. So what if Eleanor and Lucy were right? What if I would turn into a mermaid whenever I touched water? I shook my head. I didn't want to be scared of water for the rest of my life.

Next thing I knew my hands automatically turned on the shower.


	4. Call it 'aquaphobia'

_Hellooo friends! :-)_

_Welcome to the fourth chapter of Shoreline! I'm glad you all enjoy the story. :)_

_Have fun reading the new chapter, wishing you a great day, a lovely week and an amazing weekend! :-)_

* * *

I really wanted to be brave. I really wanted to stay in the shower, to prove Eleanor and Lucy wrong, to show them that they were nuts, extremely nuts – but I didn't.

As soon as I turned on the shower I panicked and jumped out of it again, faster than I had ever jumped in my life, simply trying to avoid getting any water drops on my bare skin. My pulse climbed up to 180 beats per minute, my breathing intensified, and my eyes were opened wide in fear as I watched my shower running. I panted.

Phew. That was close.

"Judging from the fact that we didn't hear you crash onto the floor, I'm assuming that you left your shower right before touching water. Your reflexes sound promising, we can work with that," I heard Eleanor talking in my bedroom.

I answered, "What did you say? I can't hear you, the shower is too loud!" which obviously was a big lie, so Eleanor simply continued, "I want to see you trying to turn it off without growing a tail."

If possible, my eyes widened even more. Shoot, she was right! Mum would kill me if I kept it on for more than fifteen minutes! But what was I supposed to do about it? Call mum and risk being discovered by her? Definitely not. Call Aaron and ask him to shut off all the water in my house? Oh, hell no.

I had to admit to myself that my options were quite limited.

Then, someone knocked on my bathroom door. "We can help. If you let us." It was Lucy.

"No, thank you. I'll handle it," I answered.

"But don't break your pretty little head trying to find a solution," Eleanor added and as always, I knew she was grinning.

My lips pursed in defiance before I remembered that they couldn't see me. So I just said, "I won't," and watched the shower run in annoyance.

Adding 'Aquaphobia' to the list of things that made my life unnecessarily complicated wasn't my plan when I left for the Moonlight Dinner with Aaron last night.

I stayed silent for a minute. Then another minute. And yet another minute. After four minutes, someone sighed (my bet was it was Lucy) and the shower head suddenly creaked suspiciously. Then, it stopped running. Just like that.

Now it was me who sighed. "Do I even want to know?"

"Depends. Are you ready for the truth?" Lucy asked and there was warmth, a kindness in her tone of voice that finally made me unlock my bathroom door. Maybe she wasn't as bad as I presumed. She really seemed like she wanted to help and guide me.

Without hesitating again, I opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom. "I am."

"Great!" Lucy exclaimed and she beamed from ear to ear which made my tummy feel a bit warmer than usual.

It was Eleanor who destroyed that vibe. She asked with a smirk, "Are you gonna get dressed beforehand?"

I looked down on my body. Right. I left the towel on the bathroom floor. I was still naked.

"Why? Am I making you nervous?" I hit back.

"More like uncomfortable," she answered, now unemotionally.

I rolled my eyes, "I don't even really know you yet and I already hate you."

"Your loss," Eleanor shrugged.

At the same time, Lucy touched my arm and grinned, "Aww, look at you two, becoming friends and all."

My posture immediately stiffened. I tried everything to lock their eyes with mine. Then I said, "Just to be clear: We're not friends and we never will be. I just need some information from you, that's it. After that we can go back to ignoring each other."

Eleanor lifted on eyebrow. "So you're saying you're using us?"

"Tit for tat," was my only response. I was pretty sure they knew exactly what I was talking about. If I hadn't fallen into the moonpool on Mako, they would have never tried to get in touch with me. Not with me. Nobody ever wanted to get in touch with me. I was a happy loner. I only needed my crossword puzzles and Aaron. Nothing more, nothing less.

Aaron …

Tears formed in my eyes and I gulped, once, twice, to blink them away.

He must be so freaking sad and mad at me for kicking him out. I didn't mean to do that. I was just scared to death and acted without thinking. Like I always did.

"Mila? Are you okay?" Lucy's soft voice pulled me back to reality.

I remembered that tone of voice. She still asked that question the exact same way that she did nine years ago. She always made me envious of her for being so good at being kind.

Because I couldn't get myself to answer, Lucy grabbed a pair of black sweatpants and a red shirt from my desk chair and held them out to me. "Here, put these on. And then we'll talk. Or you'll just listen. That's up to you."

Eleanor added, "Lucy's right. Seriously, I'll get nightmares if I have to see your boobs for another minute," which led to Lucy hitting her.

"Ow!" Eleanor exclaimed, "I'm just saying. In case you don't want to get dressed, I'll just pour some water over you. Your mermaid-form luckily shows less skin."

"Oh my god, Eleanor! Can you be quiet for like, _one second_?!" Lucy hissed angrily.

"As quiet as a seashell," Eleanor promised, grinned and laughed, "Honestly, you're no fun. What did I do to get stuck with sharing such an amazing secret with two killjoys like you? But okay, I'm all serious now, I'm sorry." She paused, waited for me to get fully dressed and continued, "Mila, sometimes destiny links different people, different fates to certain places. This is what happened to all of us. We were at the right time at the right spot, or at the wrong spot, whatever you think. There are a million factors that played a part in us being in the moonpool at Mako Island on a full moon. Maybe it was meant to be, maybe it wasn't, who knows? But what I do know is very important and I'll only say it once, so listen carefully: Mako changed you. From now on, whenever you touch water, you'll turn into a mermaid. And don't get me wrong, it's awesome, but let's be realistic, it also kind of ruined your whole life and you need to get used to that at first."

Because all I did was look at her as if she had a screw loose somewhere, Lucy quickly cut in, "I know it sounds crazy and I swear it's not as bad as Eleanor makes it seem. It just is a lot to take in and to handle, which you'll do brilliantly, I'm sure of that. We only want to help you make your transition into your new life as smooth as possible. Because when all of that happened to us about one and a half years ago, there was nobody to help us and to show us what to do. We had to learn it the hard way and we don't want that for you, not if we can prevent it."

… They were nuts. They really were nuts, no doubt in that.

And so I laughed. I laughed and laughed and laughed and I couldn't stop. It was a hysterical laughter, a laughter that only the maddest of people could master. And here I was, laughing so extremely loudly that perhaps I had to accept the fact that I was as nuts as Eleanor and Lucy.

Then, Eleanor had enough. She shouted, "Oh, for god's sake!", Lucy screamed, "Eleanor, NO!" and next thing I knew, a huge water tentacle appeared in my bathroom sink and attacked me so fast that I couldn't even react, let alone squeak or anything.

For a few moments I just looked at them, not knowing what to say, before I felt that weird tickly-tingly feeling in my toes again which immediately climbed up my whole spine until I lost my balance and dropped onto the floor – again.

"SCREW YOU!" I yelled, anger overfloating my voice, "That's harassment!"

I didn't say a thing about me not being able to move my legs. Deep down I knew that they were gone. And I had a tail instead. I also didn't mention that I started to believe them. What else could have led to me growing a tail if not being a mermaid? There simply was no logical explanation for magical bubbles of light, bronze-coloured tails and freaking water tentacles.

"Desperate times," the blond girl answered and shrugged while she juggled five little water balls in her left hand. There definitely was no logical explanation for this.

I shook my head. "You're crazy. You're all just crazy."

"True," Lucy agreed and grinned, "I'm sorry about Eleanor's behaviour. She can be a bit impulsive sometimes."

"Sometimes?" I asked in disbelief.

"Often," Eleanor herself corrected. "But, to be fair, you kind of asked for it, Mila. So, we'll harshen the rules a little. You'll listen to us, without judging. If you judge, debate or interrupt, I'll throw these water balls at you and you'll have to stay a mermaid. Understood?"

"What?! That's ridicul- Uuuugh!"

"That was water ball number one," Eleanor grinned.

"Are you out of your freaking – dammit ELEANOR!" I contorted my face as another water ball hit me and I spat right in front of her feet. "I swear to god, if you throw one more water ball in my face, I'll –"

"You'll what?" Eleanor asked.

"I'll …"

"Yes, dear?"

"Ugh. Fine," I grumbled.

"Fine?"

"Yes, fine! I'll listen, I won't argue, I'll behave," I gave in. Shoot. That was a fight I lost. But in the end, I would only benefit from them telling me about this huge mess. Consequently, it wouldn't be too stupid to listen to them.

Eleanor nodded and seemed to be super satisfied with herself. "Finally! Took you long enough to get to that point. Well, what counts is that you did reach it. Anyway, let's start simple. I want you to turn around and have a look at your tail. You need to get comfortable with it because it's going to accompany you for at least 35 more years."

WHAT?!

I opened my mouth but closed it again without saying anything. 35 years?! I would be 51 in 35 years! I would practically be dead!

Because I didn't move, Lucy squatted down next to me and gave me a sympathetic smile before she ran over the scales of my tail with her hand. "It's not that bad. You don't have to be scared. Your tail is a part of you now which you should cherish. The earlier you accept that, the easier your future will be. How about you touch it and then I'll help you turn back into a human for now?"

My heart started beating faster. I didn't want to touch it. Because touching it, feeling it would mean it was real. That this wasn't all just a very weird dream.

"Whenever you're ready," Lucy tried encouraging me.

I shook my head in refusal. Without further ado, she took my hand and put it on the part of my tail where my thighs were supposed to be. A shiver went through my whole body as soon as my fingertips touched the scales. Yikes. They were hard, rough and strong at the same time and I wondered how much my tail would weigh. I guessed it would be extremely heavy. Even trying to lift it was almost impossible.

"See?" Lucy smiled. "I'm so so proud of you. Now, let me help." She closed her hand into a fist and moved it over my body. Starting at the bottom, she stopped after reaching my head. Then she went all the way down again. While she did that, I suddenly began to steam, and every inch of my body was heating up. "What are you doing? It's getting a bit too hot under my skin."

"Just wait a sec," Eleanor answered, still juggling the three last water balls in her hand.

Oh, right. No judging, debating or interrupting. So I stayed silent. Until the moment when I thought Lucy was about to burn off my skin. I was ready to yell at her to stop, but suddenly it was over as fast as it had started. And I felt something that I didn't even realize I missed so much: My legs. I was human again.

I didn't know whether I was supposed to be confused or shocked. That's why all I did was ask, "How on earth did you do that?!"

"We're mermaids," Lucy and Eleanor responded in unison as if that would explain everything. Which it didn't. Obviously.

"Being a mermaid isn't just growing tails in impractical situations. It comes with a few perks as well. One of them is being able to manipulate water any way we want. We can form it, freeze it, heat it, vaporize it, …" Eleanor pointed at her water balls and juggled them even faster, then slowlier, feinted throwing them at me all at once and laughed loudly when I ducked in fear. "STOP IT!"

"Geez gurl, what the hell is wrong with you?" the blond girl grinned before swallowing one of the water balls out of the air.

I stared at her furiously. "Call it 'aquaphobia' or whatever!" But unfortunately, that only made Eleanor laugh even louder, "_Aquaphobia?_ What do you mean, you're scared of water? You shouldn't be scared of water, you're a damn mermaid! Water is your element!"

"Is it?! If I remember correctly, I haven't been in the water as a mermaid yet, I've only ever been a mermaid on the floor and that sucked!"

"Duh, of course it sucked! The land isn't the natural habitat of a mermaid, it's the ocean. I don't think that fish enjoy being outside of the water either," Eleanor speculated and swallowed another one of her water balls. Drinking out of thin air – they had to teach me how to do that.

All of sudden Lucy clapped her hands together. "Oh, maybe it's time for your first dive!"

"Nu-uh. Not in a million years. Nope," I immediately blocked.

"Why not?"

"Aquaphobia! I just got my legs back, I don't want to lose them again!"

Now it was Eleanor who shook her head. "You're being ridiculous. You should respect the water when you're on land, not almost start crying as soon as you see it somewhere. There is no way around dealing with your new life, so unless you want to lock yourself in your room and never leave it again, you should quit your moaning."

Eleanor was like the personification of that really mean reality-check that nobody ever wanted but secretly needed.

A big sigh left my mouth. "How are you so chill about all of this?"

"We had about 18 months to adjust. And there's no way to stop the transformation – we tried. It won't go away just because you deny it. So better accept it and try to build your life around it," Lucy suggested and held out her hand to help me to get up from the floor. I took it gratefully and for the first time since they entered my bedroom, I gave them a little, tiny smile. Not much and it was so short, they almost didn't notice it, but it was there. And it was a start.

Eleanor added, "You have my word that we won't leave you alone underwater. With your brains you might get lost and end up in New Zealand or something and we can't risk that, can we? You also won't drown or suffocate, and you will one hundred percent be able to transform back once out of water. It's all perfectly safe. We're with you. And you're meant to do it, otherwise Mako wouldn't have chosen you."

I smiled again and sat down on my bed. Maybe they were right. I was a mermaid. A freaking mermaid. And I would be one for a long, long time. So, I had no other option than learning how to handle it. Couldn't be that hard. Or at least, that's what I hoped.

For a short moment, my world was okay. Even though I was walking on a tight path between 'Nailing it' and 'Total disaster', I was confident that everything would turn out fine.

That was when my phone started to vibrate, and I didn't even have to look to see whose name had appeared on it. I could feel it. In every single one of my veins.

"Aren't you gonna answer that?" Lucy asked confusedly and I just stared at my phone's display. Nope. To be honest, I didn't want to answer because I didn't know what to say.

'Hey Aaron, sorry for kicking you out, I just had a mental breakdown because when you left me in that little cave at Mako last night, you let me turn into a fish and now I can't spend time with you or your friends anymore or else everyone will find out.' Nice. That meant, I had nobody to talk to anymore. Only my crossword puzzles but they couldn't talk back.

"You can't tell him, you know that, right?" Eleanor looked at me after watching my phone vibrate for a while.

I lowered my head and gazed on the floor. "I wasn't planning on it."

Apparently, it was very clear how upset I was since the black-haired girl immediately sat next to me on my bed and began to gently stroke my arm. "We can't force you to break up with him. Hell, we can't even ask you to break up with him. That wouldn't be fair on you."

"But we all know that it would be the most responsible thing to do," I finished her sentence.

Lucy and Eleanor nodded slowly. I sighed.

Suddenly Lucy cheerfully exclaimed, "Hey, that means, it's us three against the world now!"

"Make that two and a half. We're still not friends, understood? We just share the same secret which bounds us together, if we want to or not," I objected. Man, my mood was dead by now.

That's why Eleanor cut in, "It's okay if you don't want to do it now. We're not rushing you. I'm just saying it would best if you could separate yourself from him as soon as possible. Or at least keep your distance for a while."

"Hmhmh," was all that left my depressed mouth which apparently led to Lucy getting on a mission to lift my spirit. She jumped up excitedly from my bed and pulled me up with her. "No time for moping! You're a mermaid, Mila! We have to celebrate that! Let's go to the beach and see how far you can conquer your 'aquaphobia'! And after that we'll get some smoothies and pizza!"

I took a deep, deep breath. She was right. It was time to find out what all that magic was about. And after that, a looong time after that, I would think about my Aaron-problem.

I shot one last glance at my still vibrating phone before I declined the call, not knowing that that actually was the first tiny step towards a huge, enormous mess that the future had in store for us. I really should have read the signs.


	5. It's mostly mermaids chasing me

_Hey everyone! ^-^  
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_I hope you, your friends and families are all safe and sound. :-) xx_

_Thank you so so much for reading and following my story and thanks a billion for the new review, I really really __appreciate all of your love and support! :-)  
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_And now: Enjoy! Love, vanillapancakes xx :-)_

* * *

/ / / / /

"She rejected my call. She seriously rejected my call, Tommy. Can you believe that?!" Aaron looked at his best friend in disbelief. He didn't even know if he was supposed to be angry or worried.

But Tommy just laughed loudly. "Calm down, dude. You sound like a lovey-dovey teenage girl whose affection wasn't returned by her high school crush."

Aaron rolled his eyes, "You're not helpful."

"Not trying to be," Tommy grinned.

Unfortunately, Aaron wasn't in the mood to joke around. He mused, "It's just not like her, you know? First, she kicked me out and now she isn't answering any of my messages and calls. What if something bad happened? I should've never left her alone on Mako."

"You didn't have a choice, did you?"

"Nope, not really."

"Exactly. I bet she's with Elle and Luce right now, she'll be alright," Tommy tried cheering the brown-haired boy up and it seemed to be working a little because Aaron's lips formed into a slight grin. "That thought somehow isn't comforting at all."

While sitting down in Aaron's desk chair, Tommy suggested, "Give her some time. She'll come to you, she always does."

"I guess," Aaron said and looked out of his bedroom window. His gaze wandered from his garden over to his little motorboat. It was supposed to be a simple Moonlight Dinner, not the breaking point of their relationship.

"Hey," Tommy forced Aaron to turn his head over to him and away from the window, "You did the right thing. Okay?"

"I know. I just need a moment for it to feel that way," Aaron answered, which led to Tommy rolling his eyes in amusement, "Man, you've turned into such a softy. Who would have thought you'd actually fall for that little loner when you first started dating her?"

Aaron quickly smirked, "Sorry, bro," and then sighed, "There's just something about her. She tries so hard to not care but she cares more that everyone around her. In her mind she constantly draws pictures of ideal people and dreams and gets disappointed because they are so far from real life. Consequently, she pushes everyone away in fear of getting hurt by reality. It feels good to be the one meeting her expectations and to help her open up a bit."

Apparently, all that sentimental talk was a little too much for Tommy because he turned away from Aaron, pretending to grab the bin that stood under Aaron's desk. "Oh, don't mind me, I'm just gonna throw up a bit."

"You're such a dick," Aaron grinned, and Tommy bowed, "The one and only."

"Anyway. I'm worried."

"Do you want me to call Eleanor?" Tommy asked and was already about to search for his phone, when Aaron shook his head, "No, not yet. You're right, I need to give Mila some time, otherwise she'll feel pressured and get even angrier. As you said, she will come and tell me why she kicked me out. And until then, all we can do is wait, be patient and hope for the best."

"Will you survive the wait?" Tommy grinned again and Aaron did the same. "Depends. Do you know CPR?"

"Nope."

"Then I'll probably die."

"Rest in peace, my friend."

The two boys finally laughed together when suddenly, a tall, moderately muscular boy with blond, gelled hair stormed in through the open door. He didn't even greet the other two, he simply threw his bag in the bedroom corner and said, "Nobody's gonna die in the next few weeks except for me."

"Hi to you too," Tommy answered sarcastically and watched him fall onto Aaron's box-spring bed.

"What's wrong, Noah?" Aaron asked in confusion and the boy groaned, "My mother's crazy, that's wrong! Her and her little sister! The minute I woke up this morning, they rushed into my room because apparently, my aunt and my cousin are gonna stay with us for a month. A whole month! That means thirty days full of 'You've got to study more, Noah!' and 'Science is so important! The whole world is science, not just your sports!" or 'Why can't you be more like your cousin and aunt? They're doing something responsible with their lives!' Ugh! Please just kill me now so I don't have to live through that." He turned around on his back and crossed his tattooed arms over his head while staring at the ceiling. "I'm begging you. Kill me."

All Tommy did, was roll closer to him in Aaron's desk chair. "Wait, you mean your hot aunt?"

"Yikes, man! She's over 40!" Noah exclaimed and after that, sat up to stare at Tommy in disgust.

"But still extremely hot," Tommy winked and Noah threw one of Aaron's pillows in his face. "Don't you dare hit on my aunt."

"I thought she's divorced?" Eleanor's brother wanted to know and Noah said, "Well, yeah. But she has a son who's as old as we are. Just … yikes."

"Fine," Tommy mumbled disappointedly before Aaron added, "Even though they do have the same interest in science."

"If you two are on their side trying to win me over to science, I'll bail." Noah fell back onto the bed again.

"We'd gladly tutor you, you know?" Aaron sat down on his bed's edge and looked at Tommy, trying to tell him to back him up a little. Tommy seemed to understand because he continued, "I could help you with maths and biology and Aaron could teach you physics and chemistry. It's no big deal, really. And after that we could all go to swimming practice together. Our team won't mind."

Noah immediately refused, "Pass."

"That's something you won't do if you keep rejecting our help."

"Dude!" Aaron scolded his best friend, but Tommy only responded, "What? It's the truth. Being part of the school's swimming team, volleyball team and football team is all cool and stuff, until you fail your regular classes."

"I'm not failing any of my classes," Noah said in defiance.

"Yet," Tommy smirked. "I'm just saying that maybe your mum's right. But that's something that you need to decide for yourself."

"Whatever," Noah kept on blocking and decided it was time to change the topic. That's why he sat up again, grinning widely, "Let's get to the more interesting subject: Aaron! How was your visit to Mako with Mila?"

As a big moan of annoyance left Aaron's mouth, Noah's head tilted in confusion, so Tommy took over, "Don't ask. Aaron's been going through a little existential crisis."

If possible, Noah's grin widened even more. "What did Mila do?"

* * *

/ / / / /

"I don't want to do that. I really don't." My eyes fixated the sea in front of me and with every single wave that came closer to the beach, I took one step back.

The two girls had led me to a secret, hidden part of the main beach, isolated from all the other people enjoying their sunny Sunday afternoon outside.

There was no reason to lie. I was scared as hell. Talking about going to swim as a mermaid was one thing. But actually having to do it was way different. A billion scenarios of what could go wrong were crossing my mind and even though Eleanor had already promised and promised that none of them would happen, I couldn't really get myself to forget about them.

"Slow, deep breaths, Mila. Okay?" Lucy reminded me, "Everything's alright."

"That's easy for you to say! My mind is _racing_ and the longer I wait, the worse it gets!" I panicked and almost turned around to run away.

It took all of my strength to stay where I was and I only succeeded because I kept on telling myself how stupid my fear was. To be honest, my fear itself wasn't the biggest problem. The problem was my imagination. My thoughts of what it would be like underwater were probably a lot more horrible than reality would be like in the end, but it was my expectations which ran wild and fueled my fear even more.

I was scared of all the animals that lived in the sea. Weird fishes, sharks and rays. I was scared of sinking to the ground and not being able to swim up again. I was scared of not being able to breathe. I was scared of not being able to turn human anymore. And I was scared to finally, one hundred percent admit that I was a mermaid. Because as I was told before, I'd be a mermaid for many, many years. Which meant it being a long term commitment that I couldn't bail from once I had enough.

As always, Eleanor sighed loudly. "Okay, listen. I'll give you three options. First option is, I'll throw water balls at you again, which I'll gladly do. Second one is, I'll just push you in the sea – which I'll also gladly do. But my final, by far most favourite option is that you at last grow some ovaries and go in there by yourself. I don't always want to force you. You really make me look like a bad person."

"Sorry," I mumbled as a lame excuse. She was right. I was behaving like a little child and not like a sixteen-year-old.

Lucy walked to me and put her hand on my shoulder. Then she smiled, "I'll go in first. Maybe that'll help you a bit."

I smiled back before turning my head to Eleanor. She immediately knew what I was about to ask so she quickly said, "Fine. But just this one time."

After that, the two girls took off their sandals and stepped towards the ocean. The moment their feet touched the water, they laid down in it, probably to cease falling and hurting themselves. Or to properly show me their transformation.

A few seconds later, I got to witness something I hadn't seen before – just felt. The water started bubbling a bit and their legs merged into two large, bronze-coloured scaly tails. They looked exactly like mine and I couldn't stop myself from staring at the girls in utter shock.

_Nope. Not gonna happen._

I didn't care if I acted like an annoying crybaby who should've just gotten over with it. As long as I would be able to escape my destiny, I would try everything to do so.

That's why I did the only thing that my brain could think of: I turned around and ran. I rushed away from Lucy and Eleanor, I rushed away from the water and I rushed away from the shoreline that perfectly symbolised my inner chaos. It was the connection between land and sea, between my human life and my mermaid life but it also mirrored a border that I did not want to cross.

"MILA!" Eleanor and Lucy screamed, over and over again, but I didn't look back because I didn't want to look back. They only made my life more complicated than it had to be and I was pretty sure that I was better off without them. Seeing them reminded me of unchangeable truths.

As a consequence, I kept on running, all the way back to the wooden paths and close to the café until I couldn't see the beach anymore. Then, I stopped and panted. It was hard to breathe properly and all the people leaving the café walked past me in confusion.

What the heck had I done?! Why the hell did I run away?!

I scoffed. _Oh my god. Mila. You're officially crazy, literally crazy._

"Water?"

"Huh? What?" I asked in confusion before realising that all of a sudden, a tall, good-looking, blond boy around my age held a bottle of water right in front of my eyes. He somehow reminded me a lot of one of Aaron's best friends. Noah, if I wasn't mistaken. They could've easily been twins, although Noah's eyes were green and this boy had light blue eyes.

"What do you want?" I raised one eyebrow while suspicion was feeding my voice.

"You look like you could use some water. I have a spare bottle if you want it." A friendly smile brightened his face.

"I'm exhausted! That would be amazing, thanks," I answered in relief as I understood that he was harmless and took the bottle from him. Next, I removed the cap and was just about to lift it to my mouth when I remembered one thing.

I instantly threw the bottle away into one of the many bushed and rapidly rubbed my hands on my shorts. Phew, that was close. Potential transformation hazard. Way too risky.

The guy laughed baffledly. "I … don't really know how to react to that. A simple 'Please leave me alone, I don't want your water' would have sufficed, you know."

My eyes widened in embarrassment as the thought of him being completely confused crossed my mind, "Oh my god! I'm so sorry, I really am," which led to him laughing again, but this time it came from his heart, "No worries. I'll go away in a minute, I just want to pick up the bottle and then you won't ever see me again."

"No, please stay! I'm sorry, I'll obviously help you." I smiled. "I'm Mila, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Mila. I'm Freddy," he introduced himself and ducked down to search for the bottle under the bush.

"Nice to meet you too, Freddy," I grinned while copying his plan.

For a few moments we just searched in silence before Freddy asked, "So... do you often casually run along the beach as if you're being chased by a monster?"

My hands moved away some leaves and sticks. "Nope. It's mostly just mermaids chasing me," I answered without really thinking and Freddy laughed again. "Lucky for you that mermaids can't wander on land, then."

A scoff left my mouth. "I wish," I mumbled naggingly, but Freddy heard me anyway because he responded amusedly, "I'm pretty sure my mum told me that mermaids have tails to swim underwater."

"But who can guarantee you that mermaids always keep their tails and won't swap them for legs?"

"Good question. Do you want me to ask my mum?"

"You really do think highly of your mum's opinions," I grinned, and Freddy did the same, "Well, she's a marine biologist. If someone knows anything about the deep sea and its inhabitants, it's her."

_Shoot_.

That was not good. Definitely not good. Marine biologists and mermaids probably weren't a brilliant combination.

Consequently, I quickly tried to change the topic, "Hey, I think I can see your bottle!"

It was actually close enough for me to get, but there was no way I'd grab it, especially because the branches and leaves and the bottle itself were wet and cluttered with water droplets so I couldn't touch them anyway unless I wanted to turn into a mermaid in front of Freddy, the son of a marine biologist, and the whole café.

"Perfect! Can you reach it?" Freddy wanted to know. He leaned in and crawled into my direction but a huge branch was blocking his way.

"It's too far away!" I denied, knowing that it was a complete lie. Afterwards, I made my way out of the bush, only to see that Freddy did the same. "Let's swap, shall we?" he grinned.

"Good idea," I agreed and not five seconds later, the blond boy came climbing out of the bush, holding the water bottle in his right hand. "Your arms must be extremely short if you couldn't grab it."

My eyes widened almost unnoticeably. "Um … you know what? I - I've got to go now, Freddy. Thanks again for the water. Bye!" I tried to evade the question that was hanging in between us and was about to sprint away again when suddenly I spotted Eleanor and Lucy running towards us along the wooden path. They must have turned back human and went looking for me.

"MILA COLLINS!" Eleanor shouted and I could already sense her anger way before she stopped right in front of Freddy and me.

"How _dare _you trick us?!" she kept on yelling, "You seriously have got to be the most annoying girl on this entire planet! Lucy and I are trying to help you, you know?! How can you be so freaking oblivious to the fact that you're a goddamn merm –"

Just before Eleanor could finish her sentence, she realised that I wasn't alone but with Freddy and Lucy quickly cut in, "A goddamn mercenary! You tricked us into buying food for you because you are so stingy, it's incredible!"

"Wait, what?" I asked irritatedly, unable to follow the conversation.

Freddy immediately took a step back. "So that's why you were panting! You were trying to snatch the water from me for free!"

"I was what?!" Anger started to build up inside of me. There was no chance that I'd let them frame me for something I never did.

"What water?!" Eleanor and Lucy shrieked.

"This water!" Freddy answered and showed them the empty bottle.

"Mila!" the girls shrieked again.

"I didn't do anything!"

"You betrayed us!" Eleanor shouted.

"And you need help!" Lucy added.

"I do not need help!" I refused.

"Yes, you do!" Freddy joined in.

"_Oh my god,_" I finally shouted, "Stop it! All of you!"

And they really did stop. Never had I ever expected that to work but I was more than relieved that it did. For a minute or so, we were all just breathing heavily, staring at each other, our faces red in rage.

Before the situation could escalate again, I raised my voice, "I can explain everything. If you let me."

Because they all nodded, I continued, "Freddy, this is all a big misunderstanding, I swear, and –"

"Are these two the mermaids that were chasing you?" Freddy instantly interrupted and if possible, Eleanor's gaze instantly got even more furious before she yelled, "Goddammit, MILA! You had one job!"

"I really can explain! But you won't let me!"

"There is no explanation needed! I am so mad! You know what? Deal with it by yourself. I've had enough. Come on, Luce, we're leaving." Eleanor grabbed Lucy's hand and was trying to pull her with her, but I jumped in their way. "You have no right to be mad, Eleanor! I'm the only one allowed to be mad! You two are forcing your life on me without giving me time to adapt properly! I have my own pace for new things and if you'd be the friends you're trying to sell to me that you are, you'll have to accept that, if you want to or not!" I paused and after that said to Freddy, more than obviously trying to get rid of him, "I'm sorry that you had to witness that. Thanks again for the water, I did not try to steal it from you, I swear. It was nice meeting you. Bye, Freddy."

"No problem, really. It was nice meeting you too." At least he was still smiling. "Oh, and even if I don't know why you're arguing, I still hope that you three can fix your disagreement. Friends shouldn't run away from each other, seriously," he chuckled, waved slightly and decided to take the opposite path that led away from beach and the café.

My eyes followed him until he was gone but I still kept on staring into his direction. Mostly because I didn't want to face Eleanor and Lucy, although I knew that sooner or later I had to talk to them. Maybe later would be fine.

Unfortunately, Lucy ruined my hopes. She carefully, but affirmatively forced me to look her in the eyes while her expression showed nothing but disappointment. She shook her head and whispered, "I can't believe you told him about us, Mila. A total stranger you just met. What made you think that'd be okay?"

Yet another misunderstanding. I was so sick of having to explain myself to her and Eleanor. However, I knew that I had to do it if I at least wanted to be on a neutral basis with them.

So I once again sighed, "I didn't tell him anything, you brains. His mum's a marine biologist, she'd kill us if she knew. Even I am not that stupid to risk our lives."

"This is getting better and better, really. And you just decided to be friends with someone whose mum would love to do experiments on people like us?" Eleanor cut in and she was not as calm as Lucy, which led to me overreacting, "We're not friends! I ran away from you and he saw how exhausted I was, so he gave me a bottle of water, nothing more and nothing less! I know how much you hate that I turned into a fish and that you have to deal with me, but I would really appreciate it if you could stop thinking of me as some dumb girl who walks around telling everyone she meets that she's a mermaid! I am not an idiot! I know when to keep a secret!"

As always, Eleanor immediately joined in on my rant, "I'll start thinking of you as something else once you show me that you are something else! You don't even deserve to call yourself a mermaid! Real mermaids are not afraid of water! They live and thrive in it!"

"…Guys!" Lucy tried to calm us down, without success.

"Oh, you wanna go there? Okay, we'll go there! I'll show you how good of a mermaid I am!" I shouted and hushed back down to the secret, empty part of the beach where I ran away from earlier. Lucy and Eleanor had a few problems keeping up with my speed, but I was so angry, nothing could've stopped me from making my way to the water.

Without giving it another thought, I stepped into the sea, turned around to Lucy and Eleanor, just to lose my balance a second later and drop into the water as a mermaid. I gave them a triumphant look. "See? I _am_ a real mermaid!"

Contrary to what I believed I'd cause with my actions, the girls did not, in fact, seem defeated. Rather than them, it was me who realised what they had done once they lifted their arms and high-fived each other, grinning, before answering to me, "Now, that's more like it. We're glad you're finally accepting that."

And all I did was purse my lips. I pursed my lips harder than I had ever pursed them before in my life, only to handle the fact that they had tricked me. They had tricked me so well that I couldn't even be mad at them because it was such a genius move which I simply had to acknowledge.

I moved my tail from side to side. It felt a whole lot different in the water. Lighter. Smoother. Easier to handle.

"I hate you," was everything that I had to say to them. I still couldn't believe they had provoked me so much that I snapped and wanted to prove them so wrong that I completely blocked out my fear. I mean, I had to give it to them, that was manipulation at its best.

It was Lucy who kneeled down in front of me, making sure not to get too close to the ocean, and gave me an apologetic smile. "We're really sorry, Mila. It was Eleanor's idea. We knew that we had to get you into the water, otherwise your fear would've just grown bigger and bigger and it would have ended in a huge disaster. Can you forgive us?"

Before waiting for my answer, Eleanor kneeled right next to Lucy and added, "We never meant to cause you any harm. We're very proud of you for having fought against your anxiety and I want you to understand that neither I nor Lucy are bad people. We just want to help you."

I scoffed. Their ways of helping were quite questionable. But I also had to admit that they were extremely effective. Without them, I probably would have never gone close to the beach again.

"I guess I had it coming, right?" I finally laughed since I had decided to give them another chance. To be honest, in the end it kind of was all my fault because I was too stubborn and scared to face reality. Lucy and Eleanor only did what was necessary.

The two girls exhaled with relief and joined in on my laughter.

"Perfect! Shall we go for a swim then?" Lucy asked excitedly and once again threw her sandals backwards before she took Eleanor's hand and pulled her into the ocean. They dove in the water as if they had never done anything else in their lives and I was more than impressed.

Bubbles were floating right next to me when Eleanor and Lucy came up to the surface and smiled brightly at me.

And there we were. Three creatures of the sea that escaped the most magical fairytales, floating in the middle of the wide Pacific Ocean.

Lucy grinned, "Are you ready to witness the incredible?"

My heart skipped a beat while hearing Lucy's question. There it was again. My fear, climbing up my spine, paralising me mercilessly. We were still rather close to the shore and could feel the ground under my tail which gave me some kind of safety. Was I really okay with the fact that we would fully immerge into the deep sea?

"You'll never be one hundred percent ready, trust me. It still amazes me every time I go for a swim. Just do it," Eleanor suggested. After that, she sent me a grin and slowly disappeared underwater.

Okay. It was now or never.

"We're right next to you," Lucy promised and plunged in as well.

_This is you now, Mila. Cherish it and just follow their lead. You can do it._

And before I knew it, I took a huge breath, closed my eyes and dove under.


End file.
